LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Marie Claire contributing editor Amanda de Cadenet surveyed 3,000 women to determine their relationship with porn and 31 percent admitted to watching adult films at least once weekly.
De Cadenet is a well-known British photographer and former actress, who often shared conversations with her girlfriends about the secret porn habits of their lovers. "Then, I began to hear from younger women that their first sexual experiences were often when boys asked them to copy sex acts from images stored on their iPhones," de Cadenet said. "Porn is here to stay, and we have to learn to negotiate it, as sexual beings ourselves, who may or may not be viewers, and as partners."
Of the women surveyed, 83 percent were straight and over half identified themselves as being in a relationship. Only 12 percent of the porn watchers enjoyed it together with a partner, while 17 percent used it to better understand their partner's sexual desires. Contrary to popular belief, 76 percent of women did not feel that adult films negatively impacted their sex lives or relationships.
"Using porn to cultivate one's own sexual agency is very different from what we often hear: that women feel threatened by it or watch it reluctantly in order to please their partner, and that Millennials' sex lives will be ruined by childhoods bombarded by online sexual images," de Cadenet explained.
According to the survey, 90 percent of female porn consumers watched it on the internet, with 62 percent using their smartphones to view it. Three-fourths used free sites and 73 percent used it as a "quick road to an orgasm."
